B.C. government funding reinstated for drug watchdog group

LORI CULBERT, VANCOUVER SUN10.22.2013

A pharmacist takes drugs out of a storage drawer in a pharmacy. The B.C. provincial government reinstated funding Tuesday to a respected drug watchdog group, more than one year after yanking its budget and cancelling its drug-review contracts.

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B.C.’s drug watchdog agency will again be reviewing what’s in your medicine cabinet after the provincial government announced Tuesday it would restore funding for the Therapeutics Initiative.

The surprise move is an about-face for the provincial Liberals, who cut the University of B.C.-based Therapeutic Initiative’s $1-million funding in half in 2010, before severing it completely in September 2012.

The TI will also regain access to crucial health data, which it lost a year ago after being swept up in a health ministry investigation into inappropriate data sharing between researchers. Seven government workers were fired but none worked for the TI.

The TI’s annual $550,000 funding will be restored now that the government has addressed failures — highlighted by B.C.’s privacy commissioner in June — to properly protect patient health care data.

“The changes we’ve put in place … allows us to be confident when releasing data to the TI and others who are doing work on behalf of the ministry,” Health Minister Terry Lake said Tuesday.

He stopped short, though, of confirming this removes the cloud put over the TI by the privacy breach investigation, saying he would not discuss the ongoing probe.

Lake acknowledged some drug review testing hasn’t been done in B.C. in the last year, but said safeguarding patients’ health information was paramount.

“It’s unfortunate that we went through this, but our bottom line was we had to make sure we were protecting people’s privacy,” he said.

UBC has provided some money over the last year to keep the TI afloat, but the restoration of the government contract is fantastic news, said faculty of medicine vice-dean Frederick Mikelberg.

“This is great for the public in B.C. because we’ll be able to restart evaluating medications both for patient care and for Pharmacare, and its good for physicians who will now be able to have access to excellent educational material,” Mikelberg said.

He noted TI researchers had never been accused of misusing government data. In a statement Tuesday, UBC said all its researchers will embrace the government’s new data-privacy guidelines.

Opposition leader Adrian Dix, who vowed during the spring election campaign that an NDP government would restore funding to the TI, argued the agency “saves lives and money.”

He accused the last two Liberal premiers — Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark — of undermining the TI for political reasons.

“Coming at a time when commercial interests often distort prescribing decisions, having an independent voice on these decisions is just very important,” Dix said.

“Now what’s needed going into the future is some stability so the TI can make up for lost time.”

In July, The Sun published an investigative story about the TI, a small agency of university scientists who study the safety and efficiency of prescription drugs offered through B.C. Pharmacare. It is one of the few independent drug testers in North America.

Longtime TI employees maintain pharmaceutical companies and people they influence have tried to shut it down since it was formed two decades ago.

The TI’s supporters insist the agency has saved patients’ lives and saved taxpayers money by analyzing drug companies’ claims that a new drug is better than older, cheaper brands. They also argue Health Canada’s testing of drugs at the national level requires thorough, impartial followup

The TI’s detractors, which include pharmaceutical companies, patient advocacy groups and some doctors, argue it has bogged down the drug review process and kept potentially helpful medications out of the hands of chronically ill British Columbians.

The Liberals struck a pharmaceutical industry-dominated panel in 2008 to review the NDP-created TI, resulting in the reduction of the agency’s role in B.C.’s drug-review system and an increase in the influence of doctors, patient groups and drug companies.

The current government is still conducting an internal review into the privacy breach allegations, and Lake would not give an estimated date for its conclusion.

Initially drug research in B.C. was halted, but as of Tuesday all will resume again, once contractors sign declarations they will use the data properly. Only four of 21 contractors have not yet signed the declarations.

All seven fired workers say they have done nothing wrong, and have filed wrongful-dismissal lawsuits or union grievances.

Earlier this month, the B.C. Coroners Service ruled one of the seven dismissed workers, a PhD student fired just before completing his government work term, committed suicide in December.

In June, B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham released a report that found on three occasions B.C. patients’ health data was shared with “unauthorized” people. She scolded the health ministry for “deficiencies” in how it safeguards its data, recommending it implement a privacy policy on the collection, use and disclosure of personal information for research.

Lake said all Denham’s recommendations have been followed.

The previous health minister said last year that the government had forwarded evidence to the RCMP, but Lake would not reveal whether that is still happening. Police have refuse to confirm if there is a criminal probe into the data breach allegations.

Drug companies and pharmacies donated nearly $600,000 to the B.C. Liberals over the past eight years — almost 14 times more than they gave to the NDP. Many of the big donors are among the most active lobbyists in Victoria.

Lake has repeatedly denied his government is influenced by the drug companies.

Last spring, The Sun contacted five drug companies, but all refused to grant interviews about the TI’s past or future.

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B.C. government funding reinstated for drug watchdog group

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